MCU Week: 4/22

A lot of firsts here that become series cornerstones: a more genial style of quipping, women who aren't nurses or eye candy, a sense of cosmic, galaxy-hopping scale, and perhaps most importantly, the use of CGI to paint beautiful and iridescent worlds, scenes, phenomena. I think one of the chief achievements of the MCU is its visual style: colorful, impressionistic, warm, deploying a variety of textures, all pleasing on a deep sensory level. Indeed, the only unnatural effect in Thor is Chris Hemsworth's bleached-blonde eyebrows, beard and hair.

Ending this movie with a Foo Fighters tune is a shockingly accurate assertion of what a particular hero's favorite band would be.

Also, we give Thor: Ragnarok a lot of credit for its attempts at anti-colonial themes, but even early jock Thor turns to direct action against his own world's infrastructure when he realizes that Loki is trying to build a highway through somebody else's land.